LifeBushido Virtual Assistant Opportunity

A few days ago I wrote a post linking to several different virtualassistantcompaniesto consider working for. One of the companies on the list that interests me the most is LifeBushido, mainly because I’ve heard a lot about them over the past few years and in spite of their rather strange hiring process, their workers seem to absolutely love the job. When I read about them on various work at home forums, I find a lot of comments from people who are unsure about the company because of the application process, which I’ll get into in a minute. But then I find a lot of positive comments from people who are or who have worked for them and find it very rewarding and fun.

What sort of work do you do for LifeBushido?

Since this is virtual assisting position, there are a ton of things you might be doing. Just a few include website design, research, making calls, and appointment setting. As you work for LifeBushido, they try to determine what your individual talents are and make sure the sort of work you are doing for them matches what you’re good at. They believe this results in better productivity and happier employees, and I can see how that would be true.

How much does LifeBushido pay?

LifeBushido does not list their hourly rate on their website, but from what I’ve seen posted on other websites it’s somewhere around $10 an hour. You are hired as an independent contractor, so there are no benefits and taxes are your responsibility.

How does scheduling work?

When you begin work, you must be able to do a minimum of five hours per week. You can ultimately work up to 25 hours per week. LifeBushido hires people for part-time positions only, so it is not possible to get more hours in than that.

How does the application process work?

You have to send LifeBushido an email to express your interest in working for them, and if they are interested in hiring you, you’ll start getting several emails over the course of several days that you must read and understand. People find this aggravating, but the point is to understand their unique process and so you will go into it with right mindset. The hiring process takes 30 days to complete! I know this does seem like a long time. There is a new forum up on Facebook to help people who are interested better understand the work, and this is taken directly from that:

You and three to five others have the opportunity to get to know each other and work on a creative project together. Ideally, this project takes up to ten hours total. Five of these ten hours are billable if hired.

So you will be grouped with a few others during the application process and you will have to work on something. The downside here is that you only get paid anything for your time invested in training if you are hired. If not hired, that will just be time wasted. Many people are just not sure about this, and the company claims to understand and just says that their opportunity isn’t right for everyone. So it will be up to you to decide if taking such a chance would be OK with you or not.

Can people outside the US work for LifeBushido?

Yes. LifeBushido hires part-time workers worldwide.

What do people say about LifeBushido?

As I said above, their workers really enjoy the job. I can’t find very many complaints at all from people who work for them. This is why I decided to review them here — in spite of the hiring process which is not the norm, you might really love the work if you can get it. I did read a few comments from people who said that the work is not always consistent. This brings me back to what I preach all the time. You cannot depend on just one work at home job. You need things on the backburner. If one thing you’re doing to earn money goes kaput or the work dries up, you’ve got to have something else you can immediately turn to and start doing whether it’s freelance writing, phone work, transcription, or whatever.

How do you apply?

You can send LifeBushido an email to express your interest in the job here: jobs@lifebushido.com. I would also suggest visiting theirwebsite and also reading their new forumon Facebook.

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Comments

Lifebushido is a company that many will apply for but very few will “fit” in. I went through the whole hiring process, did the triangle, signed up for teams and worked for them for one month. I was then offered another position and took that one, while considering LB as a side egg, but later decided to let LB go altogether.

Lifebushido is a company where you are not an employee but an independent contractor at $10.00 an hour. There is room for advancement but it will take time. Those who have been with the company for a long period of time are making $12 – $15.00 an hour, however do not expect this kind of hourly pay anytime soon.

The company offers a lot to it’s client, however you are required to do a lot of work and complete tasks some which are not billable.

So let’s start at the beginning – you have to sign up, do the emails, complete all the steps. Please be advised that this process is what it is like to work for LB including the training. You will have to complete a lot of tasks, be on weekly calls, send a lot of emails etc and some of the things that are required of you such as weekly meetings are not all billable. So you may find that you are working 25 hours a week – but you can only bill for 15.

I found for the most part, that the people who are with LB are cordial. Steve is said to be a busy man and likes things short and to the point, his style can be a bit abrasive, and for the record you are being scored from the minute you submit your application.

Once you are hired, you need to join teams and you will need to complete tasks and take exams some of the training is billable. If you do not pass the test, you will need to resubmit the exam however you are not allowed to bill for more than a certain amount of time. So if you join a team in order to pass the exam you may find you need to read and study for 5 hours, however you may only bill for one. You will need to join more than one team so that you can make your hours and get enough work. You can get a maximum of 25 hours per week. **this may have changed**

You are required to be a part of weekly calls which go according to Steve’s schedule, therefore you have to schedule your time around the weekly calls which I found to be a bit of an inconvenience and also a waste of time, especially if you had nothing to discuss. During the calls, they do have a joke, and some icebreakers, but I found the calls to be a bit awkward and this is what I mean by “fit”.

The culture of LB is interesting and in my honest opinion, I had some issues with how they did things, but my deciding factor to not stay besides the pay was “fit”. I just did not feel like I meshed with Steve and some of the other workers. I just found myself on pins and needles and I could not really be myself, and if I was it was just awkward.

If you are fine with $10.00 an hour but once you do your taxes, it’s really minimum wage and honestly, for the amount of work and what is expected of you the rate is extremely low, especially when you see the amount in which they charge the clients.

Also, the billing for work while easy is a pain. You can easily spend 30 minutes a week just handling that and you only get paid once per month.

I honestly wish Lifebushido the best. I do not think it is a bad company but I just do not think it is a good choice for everyone. The application process and triangle experience is exactly what it will be like to work for LB times 2.

If you have the extra time and do not mind the low rate this may be for you.

I stopped doing other work online for Lifebusihido. However I have experienced the following problems:
After applying online and reading it was a 3 day process. I recieved more than 10 days of e-mails. Then I submited my application and was told by Steve that I should be part of a triangle and I could be hired by the fist of the next month.

I have been in a Triangle ( a group of people that work for free for 30 days on making Lifebushido better) for 2 weeks. The Leader quit. 3 other members quit half way.After contacting the leaders I was told to just re-do things next month. what about the fact that I have dedicated 2 weeks of my life to this (being in communication by e-mail everyday with strangers?).

I have e-mailed Steve and am curently waiting for a response. The whole process is confusing because there are no clear guidelies, a bunch a wiki-pages and links and leaders don’t answer e-mails. You can’t even call Steve by phone. There is a really bad process. Not strange, not odd…BUT NOT EFFECTIVE! NOT CLEAR!

I learned about this company from this blog. I learned about other opportunities and made some cash on the side, thanks to your blog. But I can honestly tell you if they do not let me make a simple phone call to be able to talk to someone, this has been a total complete waste of time.

15 days of free work, and very dispointed. You should include in your review that this company has a lot of inacurate information. And for a company that is entirely online, with no response to e-mails, well that is just unacceptable. I guess I’ll go back to my Amazon turk, fiverr and fancy hands :0

Just emailed my application ..Looking forward to hear feedback sooner. ..Hope they will consider my application.This would be advantageous for me since I want to spend time with my daughter and at the same time time I want to pursue my career…:)

I applied before with no answer back. I decided to reapply and they have shortened their initial e-mails (before you can apply) from 7 days to 3 days. So I will be receiving e-mails for 3 days before I can apply.But I honestly can say that working a steady 5 hours of work a week for $10 is money that I can use as a Stay at Home Mommy. Right now my side income is Fiverr, $80 in a two month span but have gotten free items to review, stopped with Cashcrate and don’t even waste time with Amazon Turk.

I would like to say that Lifebushido is a great company to work for at first. The hiring process is odd but for some it is worth it. I left due to the work environment. It can be very debilitating for those who care about the client. If you are a Key Assistant you are pushed to sell higher levels of service to the clients and push them. For a $10/hr job there is too much stress for me to justify staying there and I know there are several others who are leaving for the same reasons after looking for other jobs and finding them. Someone I know had their hours cut when a client left even though it was not their fault and other team members knew that and said as much. I also found that they limited what we could bill for and when we put time and effort into projects and it went over we would not be paid the over time and were to under bill. There is also a lot of work you have to do that you will not be compensated for. From what I have heard from others still working there that this is getting worse.

For some this can be a great job but for others it may be more trouble than it is worth.

Lifebushido is an awesome company to work for. I’ve actually been able to do what I love to do here. I agree the work is not always consistent, but that’s the nature of working from home. One way to get the most hours you can is to let them know that you are able and willing to work. I went from being very concerned about this not being something I could do because of very low hours to having too much to do. But because I love the work, I don’t mind. Lifebushido is also very teamwork based, although you have to be good at balancing teamwork and personal time management. Lifebushido is definitely supplemental income or is best to be combined with other sources.

I also recommend the Triangle hiring method as opposed to just applying individually. It’s really fun, you meet some great people, you get to experience many different types of tasks and you are paid for those hours if your Triangle is hired.

Right now they are in serious need of Callers and Key Assistants. They get the most hours, so if you don’t mind being on the phone and multitasking, I’d say go for it!

I will give this a shot. Its a lot of work but I am willing to take the risk. I also know that if it doesn’t work out I have a way out. Really nothing to lose by trying.http://www.linkedin.com/in/misstonyajones

Hi! Thanks for this wonderful blog! I read your posts and job leads almost daily. I saw this ad for Lifebushido.com a month ago and I applied. Now I was just hired to be a New Hire. It was indeed an interesting training process in the triangles, but it was a fun experience that I enjoyed. And it payed off as well. We will see how the job goes now, but I am excited!